Business: Labor: Dead Days on the Docks

FROM San Diego to Seattle, the giant cargo ships bobbed idly in outer
harbors, their flags announcing origins as distant as Japan and the
Soviet Union. Inside their holds lay cargo amounting to hundreds of
thousands of tons, some of it already spoiled, consigned to
destinations all over the U.S. In all, some 150 freighters have been
rendered a Pacific mothball fleet by a strike of 15,000 West Coast dock
workers. Last week the walkout moved into its third month, and there
seemed little hope of an early settlement. "It takes a month to get
everything shut up tight," says Union...